Getting Your Goat

(Page 3 of 3)

June/July 1992
by Grail Damerow  
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Health Care

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Goats are a hardy bunch and, properly h oused and fed, are unlikely to come down with some dreaded disease. If you start out with healthy goats, chances are pretty good they will stay that way. Goats are not likely to succumb to pneumonia (a disease to which they are highly susceptible) if their housing is well-ventilated and draft-free. Sound housing is doubly important for newborn kids and for freshly-sheared Angora and cashmere goats.

Overeating disease, or enterotoxemia, can spell death for a goat that binges on concentrate or chows down on spring pasture without first breakfasting on hay. Your goats shouldn't be affected if you limit access to concentrate, feed each day's ration in two portions, and serve hay free choice. If, on the other hand, you use excess concentrate to push milk or fiber production, protect your goats from enterotoxemia with a vaccination and an annual booster.

Worms can be a problem where goats drop berries in their feed trough or water bucket, or graze the same pasture year in and year out. The solution here is to practice controlled grazing and arrange feeding equipment in a way that discourages berry collection. A periodic fecal test (take at least one-dozen fresh manure pellets to your vet) will tell you if your goats are picking up worms—and what kind—so you can develop a prevention program.

Long-haired goats may be plagued by lice and other external parasites. A variety of insecticidal sprays, dips, powders, injectables, and pour-ons is available through farm stores and livestock supply catalogs (for milk goats, get an insecticide approved for dairy use).

Udder infection, or mastitis, is a threat to any lactating doe. A doe's teat openings do not close immediately after the doe has been milked (whether by human hand or a nursing kid). If the doe lies in wet, messy bedding, bacteria can migrate into her udder through the openings. Infection may also follow an udder injury. Keep housing clean and remove objects that might injure a milk filled udder.

A goat's hooves grow constantly and need periodic trimming to keep the animal from going lame. Since the rate of growth varies with the individual and the season, check hooves regularly. Using a hoof trimming tool or pair of sharp pruning shears, take one tiny snip at a time until the bottom of each hoof is parallel to the visible growth rings.

Editor's Note: Gail Damerow is a columnist for Dairy Goat Journal and the author of several books, including Raising Milk Goats Successfully (Williamson) and Fences for Pasture and Garden (Storey).

<< Related Article: MOTHER'S GUIDE TO GOATS >>

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  • Dawn Mitchell 7/9/2008 9:59:16 PM

    I have been a great admirer of Mother Earth News email version for some time, and for (appropriately) Mothers Day this year, my husband and children bought me a subscription - which has doubled my pleasure. Thank you for all you do. We have kept horses for several years now, and finally moved to 9 acres of our own at New Year. Since then we have invested in chickens, a pig (for the table) and dairy goats, and have put in an organic garden. Needless to say, EVERY issue has so much excellent information, all of which seems relevant, that it gets read from cover-to-cover several times!

    Since we are originally (14 yrs ago) from England, it always makes me feel good when I see references (like in your recent article on goats) about the origins of animals. We are going back to Buff Orpington chickens, and currently keep one Nubian (origins: Great Britain) and 3 La Mancha goats, and produce wonderful milk, cheese and soap from them. We have recently been contacted by several people with Celiac and Crohns diseases, and have now switched ALL our animals over to a grain-free diet to produce gluten-free products. It has been a great success. I now know a 2 yr old who has been 'surviving' on Almond milk and calcium supplemnts, having NEVER been able to drink milk before, and now has raw, fresh, gluten-free milk every day, and is thriving on it. What a blessing to be able to help others in such a way.

    Thank you so much for all the invaluable information you provide - and the support for environmentally aware, organic producers like us.

  • yusoff 1/1/2008 8:54:42 PM

    Well managed goat rearing is an interesting and fruitful business.

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